Gallery by Chele Nabs First Michelin Green Star in the Philippines

Gallery by Chele

“This isn’t just an award for the restaurant – this is an award for the Philippines,” Chef Chele González declared with pride after receiving not one, but two gleaming Michelin accolades for his restaurant. Gallery by Chele, tucked inside Taguig’s Bonifacio Global City, has made history as the first restaurant in the Philippines to earn a Michelin Green Star, alongside its classic (red) Michelin star.

The stakes were high at the glitzy ceremony held at the end of October, marking 2025 as the debut year of the Michelin Guide in the Philippines – joining the culinary heavyweights of China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan. Among this new constellation of stars, Gallery by Chele shone bright as the country’s sole recipient of the coveted Green Star, awarded for outstanding commitment to sustainability.

The mindful chefs behind Gallery by Chele, Chele González (left) and Carlos Villaflor (right)

Green Stars Are Here to Stay

The recognition also puts to rest rumours that Michelin’s eco-minded Green star was fading quietly into the background – a move that would have dealt a blow to the global sustainable dining movement. Instead, its presence in Manila highlights that mindful gastronomy is spreading across the world.

And Gallery by Chele is here to prove it. In a world where fine dining often conjures images of imported truffles and caviar flown halfway across the world, Chef González’s philosophy flips the script. From working in world-class restaurants in his home country Spain, including El Bulli, Arzak and Mugaritz, González moved to the Philippines on a whim. Once here, what drove him was finding new ingredients, unique flavours, and diverse perspectives on food from neighbouring regions. So opening Gallery by Chele, along with culinary partner Carlos Villaflor, gave him his own playground to cook inventively with his new environment in mind.

Gallery by Chele innovates with local ingredients, such as their ‘coco-nuts’ creation

For Chef González, the Philippines’ extraordinary natural environment – luscious, fragile and teeming with life – is both inspiration and responsibility. “Cooking here means protecting here,” he often says. The restaurant champions local produce sourced through close partnerships with farmers, fisherfolk and foragers. It also tends its own urban garden, where it grows ingredients such as endemic herbs nourished by compost from the restaurants waste.

That ethos extends to collaborations with indigenous communities, whose ancestral knowledge of sustainable agriculture and foraging often gets left behind in favour of westernised practices. The restaurant also collaborates where possible to preserve and protect native ingredients, such as a rice preservation initiative that safeguards heirloom grains otherwise set to vanish.

Wagyu at Gallery by Chele

A Growing Constellation

Across Asia, a handful of other Michelin Green Star restaurants are redefining gastronomy – from Daigo in Tokyo and PRU in Thailand, to Nén Danang in Da Nang, Vietnam. Together, these restaurants are proving that rather than a trend, sustainability is setting the new standard for fine dining.

And now, with Gallery by Chele leading the charge, the Philippines has officially joined that conversation – with a green spark that’s likely to ignite a new era of mindful, homegrown gastronomy.